Eoghan Harris: If Fianna Fail wants power, it must kill its sacred cows

Eoghan Harris: If Fianna Fail wants power, it must kill its sacred cows

Independent.ie

A Cabinet comp-rised of former conservatives and former socialists proposes a brutal Budget that will bear down heavily on the majority private-sector working class so as to protect the minority public sector and pay off German banks. That's what power does to principle.

A Cabinet comp-rised of former conservatives and former socialists proposes a brutal Budget that will bear down heavily on the majority private-sector working class so as to protect the minority public sector and pay off German banks. That's what power does to principle.

This gutless government policy presents Fianna Fail with an open goal. All it has to do is slay three sacred cows. The first is to stop going along with the Government's policy of being, in the words of comedian Barry Murphy, "the best pixies in Europe".

Secondly, Fianna Fail must call for cuts in the pay and pensions of TDs and senators. It has made a start in principle. But it must do much more. Because it needs the moral authority to ask Fine Gael cabinet ministers some hard questions about this Budget.

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